Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for many church leaders have become a necessary evil, something they do because the latest church leadership conference or magazine tells them they should. Unfortunately this attitude is the beginning of a bad relationship between the social media tool and its user. The truth is, a Twitter account and a Facebook page aren’t going to do anything for you if you just “have” them. As with many things in life, it is how you use them that counts.

In this post, we have gone to the trouble of detailing several common mistakes churches and nonprofits make with their social media accounts. Hopefully you can learn from these, identify your own errors and correct them.

1. They Know Not What They Have

As stated in the opening paragraph of this post, often times a Twitter account or fan page is birthed from a knee-jerk reaction and then soon forgotten about. While the existence of social media profiles is good in terms of web presence, they can also hurt you if they are left dormant. The “no social media is better than bad social media” theorem sometimes applies here. When a visitor checks out your profile and sees that there hasn’t been a post in 3 months, it communicates that there is little going on worth talking about at your church.

The best way to avoid this mistake is to make sure a staff person or committed volunteer is in charge of managing the social media. It does not hurt to set guidelines and standards either, for example, require at least one posting a day or whatever works for your organization. Most of the time, an overall efficient communication strategy should fix this.

2. Doris Has a Nephew Who Knows How to Use Twitter

If you have worked in the local church for a while, you probably know that when there is a job that needs to get done but church leaders don’t want to do it, they delegate it to a teenager or kid in the youth group. This works great for babysitting, pulling weeds on the campus or stacking chairs, but not for social media. Doris’ nephew should never be given the keys to one of the biggest potential voices of your church. The person who is put in charge of the social media needs to be competent and someone who understands the vision and values of the church or organization. Ideally, this person would be on staff but that is not always possible, especially if you are overstaffed.

When thinking about the person or team who will own your organization’s social media, it should be a person who you would actually hire if a position existed. They should fit well with the leadership team, understand the values as stated before and show experience in using social media.

3. Money Can’t Buy Me Social Media Love

There are plenty of businesses out there selling Twitter followers and social standing. Just yesterday I was tempted to pay $19.99 for 2,000 followers (guaranteed) but then snapped out of it and splashed cold water on my face. This practice, while it does work in getting a bigger number next to your profile name, does not equal a better social media presence. As a matter of fact, it is everything that is wrong with America, it is a quick and cheap way to look cool. Often times these sorts of deals just mean more spam Tweets in your timeline and lots of annoying direct messages selling you stuff. This just confuses and dilutes your ability to communicate with your true followers.

Keep your social media goal in mind, is it about looking popular or is it about fostering relationships and communicating with people? If your goal is to look famous, than buy as many followers as you can afford. Oh and by the way, I didn’t vote for you for Homecoming royalty.

4. Integration of Information Indoctrination

If your are thinking about social media, I am going to assume you have a website already. One of the biggest mistakes businesses and churches make with social media is to never integrate it with their website. Integration of social media is more than just including a link with a Facebook icon. A website that is fully integrated with social media embeds Twitter feeds, allows users to comment with their Facebook profile and makes social media sharing of web content easy.

Take time to look at the Facebook API forum and see all the ways Facebook can be integrated with your site. Ask your web guy to offer some solutions to integrate social media in a prominent way on your site.

5. It’s All About Me

If you missed the introduction of Twitter 3 years ago, chances are you missed what it was all about too. Twitter was never designed to be a marketing tool, neither was Facebook. Lifecoaches, realtors and corporations have turned it into that. At its core, social media tools are meant for developing relationships and starting discussions. If all you do with your social media profiles is send out news updates, then you are ignoring your followers and missing the grassroots benefits that they have to offer you. It is good idea to directly respond to your followers and fans once in a while. As them question, retweet their answers, reward people for responding to you

There are several management tools that help you identify people talking to you and about you, for Twitter check out CoTweet and SocialOomph or Tweetdeck for cross-tool management. Like most of these mistakes, a sound strategy that values people and communication best practices will consider this mistake and have built in policies to avoid it. Think of social media like a digital small group: talk WITH your people, not AT them.

I know there are plenty more mistakes to be made, these are the most common. What social media mistakes have you made and how have you learned from them? We will take both personal and organizational feedback.

If it’s too good to be true, you can probably find it online. At least, that is how the new version of that wise old saying goes. Today, the web has made possible a soft tech market where supply is endless and demand does not really matter. The winner in this economy is you, the consumer. There are plenty of free tools and resources on the web and we are going to help you find some of them. Each of these listed below can be used by your church and staff to help do what you do but better, with more efficiency and cheaper.

But first, take a look at your budget. Can you afford free? Ok then, lets get started.

For Your Website

BowserLab by Adobe (https://browserlab.adobe.com)
If you are a web designer, you may already know about this web-based tool created by the good folks at Adobe. If you are not a designer, you should get familiar with it. One of the most difficult steps in building a website is making it cross-browser compatible. Unfortunately, over half of the world still uses Internet Explorer to view sites and the other half something else, you want to make sure your website looks good for all of them. This free tool allows you to view your site with any browser you choose.

Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics)
You can put a big “duh!” next to this one, but I will mention it nonetheless. Google Analytics sets the standard for web traffic analytics and even rivals some of its not-so-free counterparts. All you need is a Google account and a few lines of code embedded in your site and you are ready to roll.

W3C Validator (http://validator.w3.org/)
In the ever-changing world of the web, it is important to have design and function standards. It is not smart to build a house without a contractor and it isn’t smart to have a website that isn’t standards compliant. The W3C features a free validator tool that scans your code and highlights errors worth fixing. Run your current website through this tool and see what happens.

For the Social Stuff

SocialOomph (http://www.socialoomph.com/)
Twitter can be a pain to manage and maintain but SocialOomph makes it easy for you. The free version of this web-based tool allows you send welcome message to new followers, auto-follow (and unfollow), and sends you reports of mentions, messages and trends with your username. For a church with little time to devote to social media, this tool can keep your Twitter profile fresh for you.

CoTweet (http://cotweet.com/)
Another great Twitter resource, CoTweet is also web-based and gives you the ability to let multiple Twitter users post to one account. We use this for Stc and so far it has been the best $0.00 we have ever spent. Besides, WordPress of course.

TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/)
You may already be using a social media management app, but this is my choice. With TweetDeck, you can manage multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts in one window. Its a download and install thing but it is free.

For Planning and Organizing

Planning Center Online (http://planningcenteronline.com)
I can’t say enough about Planning Center Online, unless they pay me. This is one of those things that you say “How did we ever manage with out this?”. Planing Center gives you the ability to host all your service and event planning in one, web-based location and makes scheduling volunteers less of a headache. The free version is limited to service type and users, but still very useful.

Writeboard by 37Signals (http://writeboard.com/)
37Signals is best-known for Basecamp, the robust, web-based project management tool. If you can afford the monthly rate it is well worth it for your churches planning and internal communications. If not, check out Writeboard, a broken down version of Basecamp that allows you to still manage tasks and ideas in one location.

PDF Converter (http://convert.neevia.com/)
Not everyone has MS Word and not everyone has Publisher. As a matter of fact, we do not know what everyone does and does not have that is why this free PDF converter is useful. We do know that everyone has the ability to view PDFs so it is a good idea to convert your docs (especially the downloadable ones) to PDF.

Skype (http://www.skype.com)
I have raved about Skype before on Stc and I am going to do it again. This is also a download and install tool but it is 100% free. I have seen Skype single-handedly revolutionize the internal communication of a church staff. The features include: chat, file transfer, screen sharing, video conferencing, and phone calls. Download now.

But all that is changing now.

In the past few years, I have been told that I was a “relational infant” and needed to grow up when it came to relationships. The problem has not been that I don’t care, I just don’t know how to show it. That is, until the social media boom in the last few years.

If “Relationship Me” is a young Forest Gump, than Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging are my leg braces. They are the gutter bumpers to my bowling game and the Wikipedia to my term paper. Social media and communication technology have taught me and assisted me in becoming a better friend.

My problem was part my own sinful self-centeredness mixed with my undiagnosed ADD and a broken internal speech filter. Basically, I never made time to keep in touch with many of my friends because I was waiting for them to contact me. When they did contact me, I had a hard time staying focused while they answered the “So, what have you been up to?”question and when they finally finished I couldn’t help but offer my 2 cents on what they needed to do to change their life. I know, I would have hated me too.

I have a paranoid fear that soon, social media and personal communication technology will come to a screeching halt. I have no evidence of this, but I would not be surprised if an electromagnetic pulse bomb (aka “The Pinch” from Ocean’s 11) or a massive attack from Chinese hackers knocked out the things we take for granted every day. In light of this, I want to record the lessons I have learned so that I can still be a good friend in the Dark Ages to come. (I am printing off a hard copy after I publish this.)

A little RSS goes a long way

Perhaps the greatest invention to come from the Web 2.0 boom is the syndicated feed, aka RSS. This technology has made keeping up with my ALL friends and acquaintances a matter of browsing for a few minutes. Facebook is great at this, giving me a birds-eye view of my friends postings immediately when I log in… they call it “The Feed.” The down side is that apps such as Farmville and Mafia Wars now pollute my feed and confirm what I sort of knew before, many of my friends are losers and therefore I am too.

RSS has taught me a valuable lesson about relationships, sometimes just knowing what is going on with your buddies is enough to keep the relationship fresh and nothing says “We’re still friends,” the way that “thumbs up, I like this!” does. Basically, its friendship streamlined and made simple.

If you can’t say it 140 characters, don’t say it at all

Remember that broken filter problem I had? I got a new one called “Twitter and text.” Twitter is essentially a feed much like RSS but it feels more real time and simple than Facebook or Google Reader. For a guy like me who has struggled to think before he talks, Twitter has helped me learn brevity in my reply to friends. Furthermore, there is a sense of commitment that comes after spending time editing, tweaking and trying to shrtn wrds 2 ft n ur post. Twitter forced me think before clicking “Tweet this.” If it was possible to save drafts of all your unpublished Tweets, my drafts folder would look like a virtual stockpile of relational weapons of mass destruction.

Thinking in terms of 140 characters or less has made a poorer speller but a better thinker. The times I have gone over that limit while texting have been very bad, resulting follow up phone calls (did you know that phones can do that?) and even impromptu rendezvous to clear things up. Thanks to Twitter and text, I am learning the value of being slow to speak and thinking when I do open my mouth (or, um, fingers).

I am sure there are many lessons out there that I and others have learned about relationships from social media, but in the spirit of practicing what I preach, I want to keep this short and ask what you think? Try to keep it brief and be sure to make yourself a hard-copy before the Chinese attack.

1. App Explosion – Mobile phone apps are the new thing. In 2009, we saw the keyboard camera phone become a thing of the past and the “Zach Morris” brick phone enter the Smithsonian. Web designers are branching out into development of these apps and more and more businesses are figuring out that increased accessibility for their consumer base means making a mobile app available. The app trend has almost completely skipped over mobile web development as well, making the technology  almost unnecessary. In 2010, watch as the number of available apps skyrockets and start the conversation for your organization’s own mobile app strategy.

2. Burning Paper – If you have a pet hamster, you had better start looking for something else to line his cage with because 2010 will see more print newspapers biting the dust. Weekend coupons and exclusive content used to be their saving grace, but vendors are making their coupons available online and studies have shown that readers will not pay for exclusive content. The next year could be the year of decline or reinvention for the local and national paper as many have already made plans to go digital.

3. Facebook Flames Out – Gasp! Thats right, I’m calling it. The rise of annoying games, ads, and old people on Facebook means that the user base that made it big (20-30 year old hipsters) will leave and find something new. Make no mistake, it will still be around in a year, it just won’t be what it is today. My prediction: in five year it will be completely gone. Now might be a good time to look into a new social network platform for your church community or organization.

4. Bloggers Burst – Blogs are just getting easier to use and better to look at which means more bad news for traditional media outlets. Already, the major networks are featuring “blog crawling” sections of their programming, a strategy that has kept their audience close and their enemies closer.If your organization doesn’t have at least a blog, do so now.

5. Android Blasts Off – Those folks at Google are sure smart. This is just a hunch, but I think you will see or at least hear rumors of a desktop version of the Android OS. Currently, Android is a mobile phone OS for “Google phones” but the market is ripe for challenge to be sent the way of Windows 7 and Mac OSX. I’m just sayin’.

6. Cyberwars Sizzle – In the next year, we will see more attacks like the recent one from the Iranian Cyberarmy on Twitter. Ever world leader knows that the next battlefield is the digital one and the US is already recruiting heavily for it.

7. Microblog Sparks Up – Twitter is the craze right now, but it won’t be long before another microblogging platform comes along and threatens to be the new thing. I’m not saying that Twitter we be dead in 2010, hardly; I am saying that whatever will replace it will be started in 2010.

So there it is. Have a great 2010 and I will see you back here in a year so we can all either have a good laugh at my expense or we can celebrate my new title of “Prophet.”